Sampling and generalisability in developmental research: Comparison of random and convenience samples of older adults
Sampling and generalisability in developmental research: Comparison of random and convenience samples of older adults
复制标题
DOI：
10.1080/01650250143000247
复制
发表时间：
2002-07-01
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Dixon, RA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hultsch, DF;MacDonald, SWS;Dixon, RA
发展科学的研究主要是基于方便的样本，而不是从人口中随机抽取的样本。在方便的样本中观察到的结果是否能推广到更大的人群这一重要问题尚未直接研究。由于老年人在人口中所占比例的人口增长以及整个生命周期的多样性增加，解决老年人的这一问题尤为重要。我们比较了老年人（65-100岁）的人口和心理措施的随机样本的社区居住的成年人和两个样本的方便。在不到一半的变量上观察到显著差异。当存在差异时，将便利样本中的参与者与随机样本中的参与者进行比较。有些领域的差异大于其他领域，但在程度上仍然很小到中等。在方便样本和随机样本之间，人与人之间的变异性和变量之间的相关性模式差异很小。结果表明，需要额外的研究比较随机和方便的样本，以探讨心理老化研究的外部效度参数。
Research in the developmental sciences is based largely on samples of convenience rather than samples drawn at random from the population. The important question of whether results observed in samples of convenience generalise to the larger population has not been studied directly. Because of demographic growth in the proportion of older adults in the population and increases in diversity across the lifespan, it is especially important to address this issue in aging adults. We compared the performance of older adults (65-100 years) on demographic and psychological measures for a random sample of community dwelling adults and two samples of convenience. Significant differences were observed on less than half the variables. When differences were present, participants in the convenience samples were advantaged compared to participants from the random sample. Differences were larger in some domains than others but remained small to moderate in magnitude. There were minimal differences in between-person variability and patterns of correlations among variables between the convenience and random samples. Results indicate the need for additional studies contrasting random and convenience samples to explore the parameters of external validity in psychological aging research.